https://www.esamskriti.com/…/Life-And-Mission-Of-Dr-Ambedka…
The Real Path

1. In the early twenties Gandhi was not in favor of temple entry of
the Untouchables as also inter dining. As a result of the Pact, caste
Hindu leaders seemed to have taken heavily to the temple entry movement.
During the days of Gandhi’s fast some temples were thrown open but
these were old-dilapidated ones. The struggle for temple entry was
launched by BRA at Nasik in March 1930 & at Guruvayyur by Kelappan
in Nov 1931.

BRA now shifted changed the rudder of the ship from
temple entry movement to Gaining political power. He said so in many
speeches that he gave in Bombay after the Pact. ‘Friends BRA was a real
smartie. Having made his point with the Congress on who was the true
leader of the DC & temple entry he like a true general shifted gears
at a pace which am sure his opponents hated but admired him for’. BRA
left for England on 7/11/1932. At the time of his departure he said that
the establishment of Provincial Autonomy without responsibility at the
Centre would be unwise and that he disliked the Central responsibility
for British India being made dependant upon an All India Federation.
After crossing swords with India’s tallest leader BRA was in high
spirits.

In his letters home he said that his frame of mind was
quite suited to democracy but he was smothered by these crowdy, noisy
and undemocratic displays of hero worship. He said that his heart craved
for loneliness and a calm/quiet atmosphere but that was not destined to
be.

2. Thinking about Hindu & Muslim - BRA used his time on
the ship to read & write. Referring to Gandhi’s statements on the
Harijan movement from Yerwada Jail he said there were signs that Gandhi
was coming round to their views but he added that Gandhi’s mental frame
had not reached a stage that welcomed or encouraged
inter-marriage/dining. He wrote a letter to Thakkar, Gen Secretary of
the Untouchability League quote ‘The touchables & Untouchables can
be held together only by love. The salvation of the DC only when the
caste Hindu is made to think and is forced to feel that he must alter
his ways. I want a revolution in the mentality of the caste Hindus’. He
thus asked the Anti-Untouchability League to launch a campaign all over
India to secure to DC the enjoyment of their civic rights such as taking
water from village wells, admission into village schools/chowki.

He advocated a crisis by direct action against the customary code of
conduct of the caste Hindus. This will compel the caste Hindu to think,
only then would he be more ready to change. The great defect in the
policy of least resistance & silent infiltration of rational ideas
lies in this that they do not produce a crisis. The direct action at
Chowdar Tank at Mahad or the Kalaram Temple at Nasik have done in a few
days what million days of preaching by reformers would never have done.

Muslim approach - On reaching London BRA found that the joint meeting
of the 3rd RTC had begun on 17/11. This time the delegation was smaller
and Congressmen were conscpiciousply absent. He was sorry to observe the
Muslim delegates, even after securing almost all of their demands
contained in the 14-point memorandum, were still not cooperating with
the other Indian groups in the demand for responsible Govt at the
Centre. He was more than convinced that the Muslims were acting as a
separate bloc and that the Hindu delegates were divided among
themselves, therefore powerless.

Another mark of the character of
the Muslim mind he was surprised to note was that the Muslim leaders
were not only self-centered but also narrow-minded & regressive in
their social attitude. BRA drew the conclusion that it was unsafe to
count on their support w.r.t. the demands of the DC. He hoped that the
Indian Muslims took out of a leaf of the Turkey leader Kemal’s book, a
leader whom he greatly respected but the Muslims did not.

3.
Untouchability - The proceedings of the 3rd RTC was to supplement the
work done by the earlier two by filling in some details, decide the
composition of the Central Govt in the light of the reports of various
committees. In the second week of December BRA wrote a letter home that
nobody was interested in the proceedings of the RTC. The British were
anxious about the settlement of their debts with U.S.A., were unmindful
of the Conference. BRA said that details of the structure of Federation
were placed before the Conference but no date of its inauguration was
ever mentioned. BRA lamented that the Muslim & states indifference
to the immediate grant of Indian demand for Responsible Govt at the
Center and naturally divided men, he observed, would not be able to
bring anything to India. The RTC ended its work on 24/12/1931 among
intransigence of the Muslim delegates & their growing indifference
to the goal of India.

Meanwhile the Zamorin, a Hindu king refused
to throw open the Guruvayyur Temple to the Untouchables. Gandhi then
suggested that if a referendum in the Ponnani Taluka decided by majority
against the entry of Untouchables he would refrain from the proposed
fast. The majority decides in favor of temple entry. Still the King did
not yield. About the same time Ranga Iyer presented a bill in the
Central Assembly called the Untouchability Abolition Bill. Similar bills
were presented & a resolution moved by Bole in the Bombay
Legislative Council in the same manner. After extending the time limit
for the fast, Gandhi said that would commence the fast on 1/1/1933 but
would wait the decision of the Governor General. But if Gandhi’s word
was law, why there be so much fuss? So said the Ambedkarites.

BRA
received a hero’s welcome. He felt that Gandhi should not stake his
life on the question of temple entry. The day after his arrival he
received a wire from Dr Ba Maw of Rangoon who wanted him to meet him at
Delhi next week. They were eager to discuss Burma constitutional
situation with you & other leaders. BRA could not attend, as he had
to see Gandhi in Poona’s Yerwada Jail on 4/2/1933. Gandhi requested BRA
to support Subbanarayan / Ranga Iyer’s bill but BRA refused since the
Bill was based on the principle of majority & did not regard
untouchability as a sin. It only said that if a referendum favored
temple entry it should be thrown open to the untouchables but said
nothing of their right to worship the deity in temples.

Gandhi
said that according to him the caste system was not bad. ‘Let the
touchable Hindus have an opportunity to expiate their sins & purify
Hinduism’. BRA/Gandhi disagreed again. BRA was convinced that if the
Untouchables made progress in the economic, educational & political
fields, temple entry would follow automatically.

4. Temple Entry
Bill - BRA continued with his arguments against the Iyer bill. He said
that just as the Hindus do not beg admission into clubs & social
resorts run by Europeans so also the Untouchables did not beg for
admission into temples. He told the caste Hindu, ‘To open or not to open
the temple is a question for you to consider, not for me to agitate. If
you think it is bad manners not to respect the sacredness of the human
personality, open your temples & be a gentleman. If you rather be a
Hindu than a gentleman, then shut the doors & damn yourself. For I
do not care to come. If Hindu religion is to be the religion of the
Untouchables, it must become a religion of social equality. Temple entry
is not enough. What is required is to purge it of the doctrine of
Chaturvarnya. Unless this is done, the DC will reject not only temple
entry but also the Hindu faith. Asking Gandhi, If I accept the principle
of temple entry now and agitate for the abolition of Chaturvarnya &
caste system on what side would Gandhi be. If he will be in the
opposite camp, I cannot be in his camp now’. BRA received support from
almost DC leaders.

Gandhi replied, ‘I am a Hindu,
not merely because I am born in the Hindu fold, but I am one by
conviction & choice. There is no superiority or inferiority in the
Hinduism of my conception. But when BRA wants to fight Varnashram
itself, I cannot be in his camp, because I believe Varnashram to be an
integral part of Hinduism’.

At the same time Savarkar invited BRA
to open a temple built by Seth Bhagoji Keer in Ratnagiri. Appreciating
Savarkar’s work BRA expressed regret for being unable to accept the
invitation. Many were surprised that BRA should have drifted to the
extreme left when rightist leaders made a definite move towards him. It
was true that instead of asking his men to co-operate with the caste
Hindu reformers he now turned his eyes to political gains & power.
But he did it with reason. Although his name appeared on the Central
Board of the Anti-Untouchability League, renamed Harijan Sevak Sangh by
Gandhi, he had not attended any of its meetings. He had severed his
connection from the League when it made a complete departure from its
original aims. Exclusion of DC leaders & workers from its executive
gradually aroused the suspicion of its bona fides in the minds of the DC
leaders. Many thought that the object of the League was to liquidate
BRA’s leadership & not to facilitate his movement. Many of them were
of the opinion that to Gandhi untouchability was a platform not a
program! Hence this widening split.

Infuriated at the bitter
statement of facts by BRA, the whole hierarchy of the national press
relapsed into a campaign of hatred against BRA. Not to speak of the
hardened sanatanists, even semi or sanatani social reformers opposed the
temple entry bill of Ranga Iyer. Pandit M M Malaviya urged Gandhi that
Iyer’s bill should be withdrawn, as he was opposed on principle even to
an indirect interference by legislature in the management of temples.
The British rulers on their part suspected foul play in the
Gandhi-Rajaji move. They thought it was a move to arouse the DC against
the British. Iyer introduced the bill on 24/3/1933 but with the
connivance of the Congress members & lack of sympathy on the part of
the Govt, the orthodox leaders smothered it by resorting to dilatory
methods. The result was a few months later the Temple Entry Bill dropped
dead.

5. Speeches - After issuing his statement on the Temple
Entry Bill, BRA carried on propaganda against the spiritualistic fads
& superstitions of his people. He impressed upon them that bread was
better than the worship of God. At a meeting at Kasara he said
excerpts’ The Chaturvarnya must be rooted out. Do not allow disunion to
grip you. Do not forget that your fight at Nasik & Mahad won you
what political status you are going to get’. At Mazgaon, Bombay he said
excerpts, ‘The Untouchables are now convinced that the demand for Swaraj
& the cause of the Hindus will suffer for want of support of the
DC. What the Hindus do for you is not by way of charity or mercy. They
do it for their own welfare as well. Our cause has gained recognition
because of our ceaseless struggle. Give up eating carrion. Some of you
nurse the wrong notion that you will not rise in the world. But remember
the age of helplessness is ended. A new epoch has set in. All things
are now possible because of your being able to participate in the
politics of this country’.

BRA made many similar speeches.
‘Friends clearly BRA liked to be in a perpetual attack mode. He
increased the scope of his attack starting with condition of the
untouchables, temple entry, Gandhi not being the sole representative of
the DC, getting rid of Hindu society of chaturvarnya, superstitions. To
my mind he felt strongly for the DC but at the same time the politician
in him realized that he had created a space for himself and there was no
way he was going to give it to Gandhi or anyone else.’

6.
Constitution committee - Towards the middle of March 1933, came the
announcement of the British Govt in the form of a White Paper containing
proposals for Indian Constitutional Reforms. It’s contents were
denounced by Jinnah, Bose, Dr Moonje. The names of delegates to the
Joint Committee were announced, representatives were 17 from British
India, 7 from Indian states and 32 from both the houses of Parliament.
BRA was there too. Although he grew in fame, name, all India status,
ranked among men of higher academic attainments the semi-reformers of
India would not do him honor as they did not shed their caste prejudice.

In the meantime BRA decided to sound Gandhi again on the question of
the panel & primary elections of the DC candidates in the light of
the coming constitution of India. BRA met Gandhi & told him that
candidates from the DC who would contest the general election should
have secured atleast 25 % of the votes of the DC in the primary
election. Gandhi said he would give consideration to it, diverted the
conversation to the question of untouchability and said the sanatists
were decrying him as a devil. Gandhi said that even BRA was not pleased
with his work. Gandhi wishes BRA bonvoyage & meeting ended.

On reaching London he heard about Gandhi’s fast & asked for details.
During these days the leader & organizer in BRA always remained in
close touch with his lieutenants, sharing their joys/sorrows &
acting as their guide/advisor in times of need. He tried to help his
benefactor Keluskar an old man now. He encouraged Kadrkear who edited
his weekly Janata. About this time there was a rumor that BRA was to go
to Islam. BRA wrote to Savadkar from London that he was determined to
leave the fold of Hinduism & embrace another religion but he would
never embrace Islam and that at this juncture he was inclined to
Buddhism. He said this in 1933 23 years before he became a follower of
Buddha.

The Indian delegates to the Joint Committee met to
appoint a committee to expose the shortcoming in the White Paper. At
this meeting BRA asked for separate electorates saying he was fed up
with the attitude of the caste Hindus. By this time the agitation
against the Poona Pact reached white heat. Almost all Hindu leaders who
had ratified it now turned out to be its opponents.

When the
Joint Committee reopened its session on 3/10/1933 Churchill was
cross-examined. BRA crossed swords with him when he quoted a speech,
which the latter had made in Parliament, and asking him questions
thereon, he floored Churchill. The Joint Committee completed its work in
November 1933. While most members returned to India BRA was busy
collecting data for a book on the Indian Army, which has not seen the
light of the day. The Chamars a small minority in Maharashtra accused
BRA for partiality towards the Mahars. BRA wrote back that he was sick
of these small minds & said that this controversy would go on as
long as caste remained.